Satellites are orbiting around the world gathering data, via data connections, from a growing number of devices (such as modems) on earth. Every satellite is limited in regard the number of data connections it can handle concurrently. Therefore, when a satellite passes an area with a lot of devices in its footprint, and each of these devices tries to setup a data connection to the satellite, congestion problems occur when the number of data connections exceeds the number of data connections the satellite can handle. More in general congestion problems occur when too many devices in a network try to connect to a relay station at more or less the same time.
U.S. Pat. No. 9,763,253, according to its abstract, describes “Methods and systems are described which provide solutions for determining how to allocate terminals to slots in order to maximize communication system performance in the case where there is no feedback channel between a multiuser satellite receiver and terminals within the field of view. Terminals operate independently of each other and choose transmission slots based upon the geographic position of the terminal. Terminals can be programmed with a slot selector to choose slots according to some deterministic or non-deterministic function of the current position. A slot plan database may be used to assist in efficient slot selection. Regular and irregular grid based allocation methods are described, that reduce the likelihood that too many terminals transmit using the same slot within the field of view. Satellite induced Doppler effects can be utilized be further increase slot re-use and to improve allocation of slots so that the receiver sees an approximately uniform distribution of frequencies over the frequency band to improve system throughput. The approaches described herein greatly reduce or eliminate the probability of failure at the receiver, which has numerous implementation advantages such as reduced cost, complexity, and power consumption.”
U.S. Pat. No. 7,650,379, according to its abstract, describes “A method for managing data traffic in a multi-user multiple-simultaneous-access (MUMSA) environment, for example in a code reuse multiple access (CRMA) environment or other physical environment having true random access with more than one transmission present at the same time, the method including estimating channel load for multiple users, then using the estimate of channel load to calculate a congestion threshold on an ongoing basis, at each terminal performing an experiment using that congestion threshold value and a random number generator to determine if a packet is eligible to be transmitted, transferring downstream virtual channel traffic and redistributing user terminals to affiliate with the proper downstream virtual channel.”
U.S. Pat. No. 7,606,188, according to its abstract, describes “Monitoring the world is due to the availability of a wide variety of sensors a rapidly growing market. The data from sensors is transmitted over networks and gathered to deduct valuable information.
Satellite communications are carried out using the Data Over Cable Interface Specification (DOCSIS). Satellite modems are notified of upstream channel congestion by inserting a congestion notification message in a medium access protocol (MAP) message for the upstream channel. Specifically, the congestion notification message is inserted in an unused field of the MAP message, such as the explicit congestion notification (ECN) field. The MAP message can also carry other characteristics of the upstream channel, including priority threshold, multicast access burst availability, and available bandwidth.”
U.S. Pat. No. 6,625,118, according to its abstract, describes “In a packet network, on receiving a packet a receiving host determines if the packet has been marked by any of the nodes through which it passed, to indicate congestion at that node, e.g. by checking the CE bit in an IP header. A packet flow control parameter is generated at the receiving side, and sent to the source using an Internet Protocol, as part of the packet acknowledgment, to control the flow of packets from the source, according to the packet flow control parameter. This can reduce control loop delays caused by waiting at the source for a number of acknowledgments to arrive before the congestion level can be calculated. Conditions at the receiver which may be different to those at the source can now be taken into account in the flow control.”